Kelni GVG Injunction Application To Rule On 5th July – Court

A Human Rights Court will on July 5, 2018, deliver its ruling on an interlocutory injunction application on the controversial contract between Kelni GVG and the government of Ghana.

An application instituted at the Court by plaintiffs, Sara Asafu-Adjaye and Maximus Amertogoh, seeking, among others, an interlocutory injunction to restrain the government and its assigns from implementing and operationalizing a common platform to monitor revenues of telecommunication companies was adjourned to Tuesday, July 3, 2018, for hearing because the judge needed some time to study the documents as filed by the parties.

The State in Court Tuesday indicated that it has filed a statement in opposition to the application for interlocutory injunction. The applicants even though we’re yet to be served with the statement of the State, informed the court that they will have a look at the State’s document and response if necessary. The Court after these submissions went ahead to set July 5 as the date to deliver its ruling on the interlocutory application.

The Case of the Applicants

The Applicants are before the Court because they insist that having followed the public debate and upon further enquiry, they gathered that the 1st (Ministry of Communication), 2nd (National Communication Authority) and 3rd (Ghana Revenue Authority) respondents, who are primarily responsible for the implementation of the common platform, intend to carry out the exercise in a manner which will be in breach of the Applicants’ fundamental human right to privacy.

The Plaintiffs claim that the architecture of the common platform to be implemented is such that instead of connecting to only the billing node provided by the telecom companies as stipulated under Act 864, the connection will be made to all the physical nodes, and it will be a breach of Article 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

According to the Applicants, the mobile networks have a statutory duty to protect their customers, including the Plaintiffs under Section 73 of the Electronic Communications Act 2008 (Act 775) by ensuring that correspondence and communications of customers are not intercepted or interfered with.

They insisted that in the current form, a third party acting on behalf of the government even without a court order can intercept communications and correspondences, including text messages and voice calls of customers of mobile network operators.